" We are only doing what good doctors have done through the ages-saving the patient, in this case our Germany was far from a weakening, ultimately destructive condition. But we are doing it more humanely, more methodically than it has ever been done before. Healthly German boys and girls deserve to be protected from these useless creatures" (10-11) ~ Dr. Horst Schumann
SUMMARY:
The reader is introduced to the main character, Johann Brenner, an ex-Nazi doctor working as a janitor in the courthouse where the Nuremberg trials are being held. Johann went back to Nuremberg with false papers, taking on the alias Heinrich Westermann. He has been estranged from his wife Helga since the beginning of the war. People have gotten sick during the trial, so he is required to stay and watch. Johann is extremely effected by the trials, worried that someone will recognize him, despite his new alias. Helga is in the courtroom watching the trials and recognizes him. She writes Johann a letter and tells him to meet her at a church. When he arrives, she is overjoyed to she her husband because she had gotten news that he had died in war. She tells Johann to come home with her, but he says he can't at the time and that he couldn't explain why. At the end of the chapter, Johann watches an old man move bricks from the rubble and debris of Nuremberg's bombing. He recognizes the old man, but he cannot place for where he knows him.
CHARACTERS:
Johann Brenner(1)
Adolf Hitler(3)
Paul-Adolf Brenner(4)
Hermann Goering(4)
Karl Brandt(6)
Aronsohn(7)
Horst Schumann(10)
Philipp Stein(12)
Helga Brenner(13)
Erika(14)
Old Man (18-19)
VOCABULARY:
Dignitaries(3)- a person who holds a high rank or office, as in the government or church.
Goose Stepping (4)- to march in a goose step: Troops goose-stepped past the reviewing stand.
Insignia(6)- a badge or distinguishing mark of office or honor:
Bulbous(6)- bulb-shaped
Purulent (7)- full of, containing, forming, or discharging pus
Resignation(9)- an accepting, unresisting attitude, state, etc.; submission;acquiescence
Resolute(10)- characterized by firmness and determination, as the temper, spirit, actions, etc.
Euthanasia(10)-Also called mercy killing: the act of putting to death painlessly or allowing to die, as by withholding extreme medical measures, a person or animalsuffering from an incurable, especially a painful, disease or condition; painless death.
Vaulted(14)- an arched structure, usually made of stones, concrete, or bricks, forming a ceiling or roof over a hall, room, sewer,or other wholly or partially enclosed construction.
Sullenness(12)-persistently and silently ill-humored; morose.
KEY CONCEPTS & EVENTS: Auschwitz(3)- the largest cluster of the more than 300 Nazi killing- and slave-labor camps in the Third Reich and its conquered territories, is enormous and emblematic of the diverse horrors of its leadership. Auschwitz was begun in April 1940 near the Polish city of Oświęcim.More info at this link: http://shadowswalking.com/Shadows_Walking/Auschwitz-Birkenau.html Berlin- capital of Germany; more info at this link: http://shadowswalking.com/Shadows_Walking/Berlin.htm Bombing of Nuremberg(16) -photos and video footage at these links: Nuremberg bombing, Video of Hitler's inner circle/ Nuremberg Dachau(12)-Established in March 1933, the Dachau concentration camp was the first regular concentration camp established by the National Socialist (Nazi) government.
more info at this link: http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005214 Displaced Persons Camp- From 1945 to 1952, more than 250,000 Jewish displaced persons (DPs) lived in camps and urban centers in Germany, Austria, and Italy. more info at this link: Displaced Persons Camp Furthstrabe(3)- Residential Highway in Central Germany. Grafeneck(10)- One of Nazi Germany's Euthanasia centers. More information at this link: http://shadowswalking.com/Shadows_Walking/Grafeneck.html Hitler Youth (4)-the Nazis’ paramilitary organ-ization for boys ages fourteen to eighteen
more info at this link: Hitler Youth International Military Tribunal(1,3)-On December 17, 1942, the leaders of the United States, Great Britain, and the Soviet Union issued the first joint declaration officially noting the mass murder of European Jewry and resolving to prosecute those responsible for violence against civilian populations.Though some political leaders advocated summary executions instead of trials, eventually the Allies decided to hold an International Military Tribunal. More info at this link: http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10007069 Interwar Germany- time period between the end of WWI and the start of WWII
More info at this link: Jewish Communities during Interwar Years Karlsruhe(16)- city in Germany; more info at this link:Karlsruhe Luftwaffe(10)- air force; Goering took on many positions of power and leadership within the Nazi state: Commander in Chief of the German air force. more info at this link: http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/media_ph.php?ModuleId=10005443&MediaId=1878 Nazi Doctors' Trial(4,9)-For a wealth of information pertaining to the Nazi Doctors' Trial including primary sources and historical film please visit: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum http://shadowswalking.com/Shadows_Walking/Nazi_Doctors_Trial.html Nuremberg(1)- location of nazi official and doctor trials in Germany after WWII http://shadowswalking.com/Shadows_Walking/Nuremberg.html Nuremberg Trials - Trials that took place in Nuremberg, Germany: charged many Nazi officials and physicians with "crimes against humanity"
Learn more about the video we watched in class here: American Experience - The Nuremberg Trials Palace of Justice(1)- Nuremberg’s courthouse in which the Nuremberg Trials were held, between 1945 and 1949.
more information at link: Palace of Justice
from ABC-CLIO World at War database: http://worldatwar.abc-clio.com/Search/Display/772618?terms=Palace+of+Justice Rhineland(1)-During the remilitarization of the Rhineland, German civilians salute German forces crossing the Rhine River in open violation of the Treaty of Versailles. Mainz, Germany, March 7, 1936
More info at these links: RhinelandRhineland Bastards: Mixed Race Children September Party Rallies(3)- held about 11 miles Southeast of Nuremberg, Germany; where six rallies were held from 1933- 1938.
more info at these links: Party Rallies/ Anti-SemitismYouth Reich Party ConferenceNazi Olympics Sterilization-various surgical procedures intended to eliminatethe capacity to reproduce in humans or animals. more info at this link: Nazi Medical Experiments Third Reich(7)- the Nazi rise to power brought an end to the Weimar Republic, a parliamentary democracy established in Germany after World War I. Following the appointment of Adolf Hitler as chancellor on January 30, 1933, the Nazi state (also referred to as the Third Reich) quickly became a regime in which Germans enjoyed no guaranteed basic rights.
more info at these links: http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005141 http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10007331 Vaterland(2)- fatherland; native country Volk(19)-people Volksbank(19)-people's bank
Chapter 1 - 1946: Trials
MEMORABLE PASSAGE(S):
" We are only doing what good doctors have done through the ages-saving the patient, in this case our Germany was far from a weakening, ultimately destructive condition. But we are doing it more humanely, more methodically than it has ever been done before. Healthly German boys and girls deserve to be protected from these useless creatures" (10-11) ~ Dr. Horst Schumann
SUMMARY:
The reader is introduced to the main character, Johann Brenner, an ex-Nazi doctor working as a janitor in the courthouse where the Nuremberg trials are being held. Johann went back to Nuremberg with false papers, taking on the alias Heinrich Westermann. He has been estranged from his wife Helga since the beginning of the war. People have gotten sick during the trial, so he is required to stay and watch. Johann is extremely effected by the trials, worried that someone will recognize him, despite his new alias. Helga is in the courtroom watching the trials and recognizes him. She writes Johann a letter and tells him to meet her at a church. When he arrives, she is overjoyed to she her husband because she had gotten news that he had died in war. She tells Johann to come home with her, but he says he can't at the time and that he couldn't explain why. At the end of the chapter, Johann watches an old man move bricks from the rubble and debris of Nuremberg's bombing. He recognizes the old man, but he cannot place for where he knows him.
CHARACTERS:
Johann Brenner(1)
Adolf Hitler(3)
Paul-Adolf Brenner(4)
Hermann Goering(4)
Karl Brandt(6)
Aronsohn(7)
Horst Schumann(10)
Philipp Stein(12)
Helga Brenner(13)
Erika(14)
Old Man (18-19)
VOCABULARY:
Dignitaries(3)- a person who holds a high rank or office, as in the government or church.
Goose Stepping (4)- to march in a goose step: Troops goose-stepped past the reviewing stand.
Insignia(6)- a badge or distinguishing mark of office or honor:
Bulbous(6)- bulb-shaped
Purulent (7)- full of, containing, forming, or discharging pus
Effusive(7)- unduly demonstrative; lacking reserve
Castration(7)- to remove the testes of; emasculate; geld.
Grotesque(8)- odd or unnatural in shape, appearance, or character; fantastically ugly or absurd; bizarre.
Funereal(8)- mournful; gloomy; dismal
Stupor(8)- suspension or great diminution of sensibility, as in disease or as caused by narcotics, intoxicants,etc.
Exudation(8)- a discharge of certain elements of the blood into the tissues.
Suppuration(8)- festering, maturation, purulence, pus.
Disdainful(7)-arrogant
Resignation(9)- an accepting, unresisting attitude, state, etc.; submission;acquiescence
Resolute(10)- characterized by firmness and determination, as the temper, spirit, actions, etc.
Euthanasia(10)-Also called mercy killing: the act of putting to death painlessly or allowing to die, as by withholding extreme medical measures, a person or animalsuffering from an incurable, especially a painful, disease or condition; painless death.
Vaulted(14)- an arched structure, usually made of stones, concrete, or bricks, forming a ceiling or roof over a hall, room, sewer,or other wholly or partially enclosed construction.
Sullenness(12)-persistently and silently ill-humored; morose.
KEY CONCEPTS & EVENTS:
Auschwitz(3)- the largest cluster of the more than 300 Nazi killing- and slave-labor camps in the Third Reich and its conquered territories, is enormous and emblematic of the diverse horrors of its leadership. Auschwitz was begun in April 1940 near the Polish city of Oświęcim.More info at this link: http://shadowswalking.com/Shadows_Walking/Auschwitz-Birkenau.html
Berlin- capital of Germany; more info at this link: http://shadowswalking.com/Shadows_Walking/Berlin.htm
Bombing of Nuremberg(16) -photos and video footage at these links: Nuremberg bombing, Video of Hitler's inner circle/ Nuremberg
Dachau(12)-Established in March 1933, the Dachau concentration camp was the first regular concentration camp established by the National Socialist (Nazi) government.
more info at this link: http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005214
Displaced Persons Camp- From 1945 to 1952, more than 250,000 Jewish displaced persons (DPs) lived in camps and urban centers in Germany, Austria, and Italy. more info at this link: Displaced Persons Camp
Furthstrabe(3)- Residential Highway in Central Germany.
Grafeneck(10)- One of Nazi Germany's Euthanasia centers. More information at this link: http://shadowswalking.com/Shadows_Walking/Grafeneck.html
Hitler Youth (4)-the Nazis’ paramilitary organ-ization for boys ages fourteen to eighteen
more info at this link: Hitler Youth
International Military Tribunal(1,3)-On December 17, 1942, the leaders of the United States, Great Britain, and the Soviet Union issued the first joint declaration officially noting the mass murder of European Jewry and resolving to prosecute those responsible for violence against civilian populations.Though some political leaders advocated summary executions instead of trials, eventually the Allies decided to hold an International Military Tribunal. More info at this link: http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10007069
Interwar Germany- time period between the end of WWI and the start of WWII
More info at this link: Jewish Communities during Interwar Years
Karlsruhe(16)- city in Germany; more info at this link:Karlsruhe
Luftwaffe(10)- air force; Goering took on many positions of power and leadership within the Nazi state: Commander in Chief of the German air force. more info at this link: http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/media_ph.php?ModuleId=10005443&MediaId=1878
Nazi Doctors' Trial(4,9)-For a wealth of information pertaining to the Nazi Doctors' Trial including primary sources and historical film please visit: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
http://shadowswalking.com/Shadows_Walking/Nazi_Doctors_Trial.html
Nuremberg(1)- location of nazi official and doctor trials in Germany after WWII
http://shadowswalking.com/Shadows_Walking/Nuremberg.html
Nuremberg Trials - Trials that took place in Nuremberg, Germany: charged many Nazi officials and physicians with "crimes against humanity"
Learn more about the video we watched in class here: American Experience - The Nuremberg Trials
Palace of Justice(1)- Nuremberg’s courthouse in which the Nuremberg Trials were held, between 1945 and 1949.
more information at link: Palace of Justice
from ABC-CLIO World at War database:
http://worldatwar.abc-clio.com/Search/Display/772618?terms=Palace+of+Justice
Rhineland(1)-During the remilitarization of the Rhineland, German civilians salute German forces crossing the Rhine River in open violation of the Treaty of Versailles. Mainz, Germany, March 7, 1936
More info at these links: Rhineland Rhineland Bastards: Mixed Race Children
September Party Rallies(3)- held about 11 miles Southeast of Nuremberg, Germany; where six rallies were held from 1933- 1938.
more info at these links: Party Rallies/ Anti-Semitism Youth Reich Party ConferenceNazi Olympics
Sterilization-various surgical procedures intended to eliminatethe capacity to reproduce in humans or animals.
more info at this link: Nazi Medical Experiments
Third Reich(7)- the Nazi rise to power brought an end to the Weimar Republic, a parliamentary democracy established in Germany after World War I. Following the appointment of Adolf Hitler as chancellor on January 30, 1933, the Nazi state (also referred to as the Third Reich) quickly became a regime in which Germans enjoyed no guaranteed basic rights.
more info at these links: http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005141
http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10007331
Vaterland(2)- fatherland; native country
Volk(19)-people
Volksbank(19)-people's bank